Today Microsoft's lust for power reaches far beyond an operating system monopoly. Witness their countless recent investments in media companies, their involvement with banks and aggressive movement into the Internet. Microsoft is attempting to control media, commerce, and communications of the future.
Bill Gates will insist that Microsoft is only a software company, with no interest in media, banking or other markets. Several years ago he made that same contention about the Internet, but today Microsoft claims that integration of the Internet with the rest of its products is a "natural step in software innovation." How can we believe Microsoft now when they claim that they intend to expand no further?
We can't. Microsoft is investing everywhere: Comcast, Hotmail, Real Networks, WebTV, MSNBC, Firefly, and the list goes on. Microsoft, although it did not earn its position in the marketplace, now has the ability to ensure its dominance for years to come simply by investing in every new technology that emerges and leveraging the Windows monopoly and excessive advertising budget to gain share in other markets.
The API is the part of an operating system which determines how applications interact with the OS. Microsoft has been known to incorporate features into the Windows API without telling other companies so that they can prevent them from competing by improving their programs in certain ways. Furthermore, Microsoft is notorious for using its "control of the battleground" in which the application wars are fought in order to "break" its competitors' products. Take, for example, the infamous alteration of the "WINSOCK.DLL" file, that controls how programs communicate with the Internet. After installing the Microsoft Network, America Online mysteriously fails to operate correctly, or after installing the Windows Media Player, RealPlayer no longer launches when opening Internet media files.
As if this wasn't enough, Microsoft also uses their operating system monopoly to make consumers take other products, such as forced bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows. Consumers, having no choice but to purchase Windows because of its monopoly, must also take Internet Explorer.
Microsoft can now prevent virtually any company from achieving an important role in the marketplace by leveraging its preexisting monopoly. They are using that monopoly to grow into other markets, and achieve a monopoly of those markets too. What will follow if Microsoft gets its way is that software will become mediocre while carrying a large price tag, every Internet transaction will include a Microsoft tax, and innovation and competition in the computer industry will be non-existent. Microsoft must be stopped.

This column originally appeared on the Anti-Microsoft Association web site, reproduced with permission. Copyright © 1998 David Schneider-Joseph.